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What’s new in the ACE Personal Trainer Manual (5th Edition)?

We’re very proud to announce that our new ACE Personal Trainer Manual (5th Edition) has arrived! Rooted in the latest science, the new manual delivers relevant tools that new professionals and industry veterans from all fields can apply to the clients of today. It marries the most recent peer-reviewed research with new information about managing a personal training business, and the evolution of our ACE Integrated Fitness Training® Model, proven to help you deliver custom, individualized programs that work.

So What’s New?

The ACE Personal Trainer Manual (5th Edition) is a cover-to-cover overhaul of the 4th edition manual. While the Table of Contents has not changed, each individual chapter was critically reviewed and updated by the chapter authors, content reviewers and manual editors, all of whom are experts in their respective fields of exercise physiology, behavior change, nutrition, applied kinesiology and personal training. That process helps to ensure the manual contains the most current and relevant, science-based resources for assessments, exercise programming and health-behavior coaching. In addition, feedback from interactions between candidates and the ACE Resource Center was taken into account in revamping the chapters to make them more application-based and easier to digest.

All chapters in the ACE Personal Trainer Manual (5th Edition) have been updated according to current technical guidelines for interviews, assessments and exercise programming and progressions, and to more strongly reinforce the concept of using a behavioral coaching approach instead of a prescriptive approach to training. New information and features include:

• ACE Integrated Fitness Training® (ACE IFT®) Model (Chapters 5–12) has been enhanced with the addition of a new foundational stage to the health-fitness-performance continuum, making it the function-health-fitness-performance continuum. This new stage addresses the needs of older adults and other low-functioning individuals, who must develop basic functional skills before attempting to enhance overall health.

• Functional Programming (Chapter 9)has been streamlined to focus on key programming principles and techniques with cross-references to Web-based resources for additional content.

• Key Concepts have been highlighted throughout the manual to help individuals who are studying for the ACE exam focus their studies and not become overwhelmed by certain topics.

• Important topics and graphics from the Essentials of Exercise Science for Fitness Professionals text have been incorporated into the new manual. For example, when a certain muscle group is mentioned in an assessment protocol, the anatomical illustration appears as a reminder for the reader.

• Expand Your Knowledge sections have been added to highlight key research and new insights that personal trainers should know, including how an old concept was revised with new information or how conflicting evidence can exist.

• Apply What You Know sidebars have been added to give candidates insight into real-world examples that illustrate specific concepts. Essentially, the content helps candidates take what they’ve learned, and apply it in actual work settings.

• Think It Through features ask thought-provoking questions that force readers to pause and digest concepts introduced in the manual.

• Do the Math problems provide application-based perspectives to math calculations, giving readers context for how the numbers are used in the real world, and why they matter.

In addition to the many updates in the ACE Personal Trainer Manual (5th Edition), accompanying materials contained within ACE Personal Trainer study programs have been critically reviewed and updated as follows:

• Available for purchase at checkout with any study program or manual set, our new eBook creates a new digital home for our ACE Personal Trainer Manual (5th Edition) and the Essentials of Exercise Science for Fitness Professionals text. Incorporating the most modern technology in digital publications, the eBook allows you to access core study materials from virtually any mobile device or desktop.

Todd Galati holds a master’s degree in kinesiology, a bachelor’s degree in athletic training, and all four ACE certifications. Galati’s experience includes directing youth fitness programs focused on reducing obesity, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes at the UC San Diego School of Medicine, teaching courses in biomechanics, applied kinesiology, and anatomy at Cal State San Marcos and San Diego State University, conducting human performance studies as a research physiologist with the U.S. Navy, personal training in medical, nonprofit, and commercial facilities, and coaching endurance athletes to state and national championships and other goals once felt to be out of reach.